Ranking the Best Opponents for Gary Russell Jr.'s Next Fight

The knockout was no surprise. The one who scored it, however, surely was.

Though reigning WBC featherweight champ Jhonny Gonzalez was billed as the big puncher against speed-merchant challenger Gary Russell Jr. entering Saturday night’s fight in Las Vegas, it was a shockingly opposite ending that cast Russell as a fourth-round TKO winner at the Palms Casino Resort.

The former U.S. amateur kingpin indeed controlled the first two rounds with his fast fists, but it was a thudding straight left followed by a sweeping right hook that sent Gonzalez down in the third, and the wobbly Mexican never recovered—falling once more in the fourth before referee Tony Weeks stepped in to end matters just 37 seconds into the session.

“That’s not the way almost anyone thought this fight would end,” said Showtime analyst Al Bernstein, referring to a general consensus that leaned on Gonzalez’s 48 stoppages in 57 pro victories, compared to Russell’s comparatively thin resume to support his obvious advantages in hand and foot speed.

It was Russell’s second career title fight, coming nine months after a majority-decision loss to Vasyl Lomachenko in a bid for the vacant WBO championship that was seen by many as even more one-sided than the judges scored it. In fact, Russell had never won a scheduled 12-round bout and had scored just one victory—out of 25—over a fighter who’d won at least two straight bouts.

Nonetheless, the determination he showed following the Lomachenko loss proved legitimate.

Russell landed 59 punches compared to 14 for Gonzalez, including a 34-7 edge in power shots.

“That was the wrath and the frustration of Gary Russell after the loss to Lomachenko,” said Showtime’s Paulie Malignaggi, “and he just took it out on Jhonny Gonzalez.”

Upon watching Saturday's fight, hearing the aftermath conversations and surveying the landscape for those fighters who’d make the most sense as Russell’s next in line, our top choices are on the next several pages. Take a moment to drop your suggestions in the comments section.

4. Robinson Castellanos

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He’s not the sexy pick among a would-be crop of challengers at 126 pounds—thanks in no small part to 10 losses in 31 pro fights—but soon-to-be 33-year-old (his birthday is April 19) Castellanos does have one awfully convenient thing on his side when it comes to making a match with Russell.

Politics.

Castellanos became the WBC’s mandatory challenger in his most recent outing on Jan. 26 in San Antonio, where he dominated another 10-loss wannabe—34-year-old Rocky Juarez—and started his third reign as the organization’s undisputedly meaningless “Silver” champion.

He’d previously held the trinket over six fights in 2011 to 2012 and three more fights in 2013, so, if nothing at all else, he's the poster child for the value of prolonged proximity.

3. Leo Santa Cruz

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Though he’s been talked about for a while as a possible foe for fellow 122-pound kingpin Guillermo Rigondeaux, it seems the wonderfulness of boxing is making it more likely that Leo Santa Cruz will ultimately end up in the ring with Russell.

In February, Santa Cruz became the latest high-profile property to leave the Golden Boy Promotions roster thanks to a relationship with omnipotent manager/adviser Al Haymon, which all but KO’d the idea that he’d ever meet the unbeaten Cuban in a unification summit.

But while it likely canceled out one attractive match, the transaction did bring a rise in weight into play for Santa Cruz, with the idea that he’d face fellow Haymon clients Russell or Abner Mares later this year in a marquee television slot—on either Showtime or one of Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions programs.

2. Abner Mares

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Former three-division champion Abner Mares had said many times that he coveted a chance to avenge BoxingScene.com’s 2013 Upset of the Year, which came when Gonzalez starched him in a single round at the StubHub Center in suburban Los Angeles.

But something tells us a title shot against Gonzalez’s conqueror will work just as well.

Russell put a big dent in the relevance of a Mares vs. Gonzalez rematch with his Saturday night performance in Las Vegas, and because he and Mares share space under the Al Haymon management umbrella, it’s easy to imagine the two of them getting together with a belt on the line.

Go ahead and score it: Title belts 1, Revenge 0.

1. Vasyl Lomachenko

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When a then-unbeaten Russell met Vasyl Lomachenko for the first time last summer, it was perceived as the first in a series of peaceful shots that ultimately thawed the sport’s promotional “Cold War.”

But while getting the Top Rank-led Ukrainian and the Al Haymon-steered American back in the ring again might take a similar tectonic-level movement, there’s no doubt it’s what the first-time loser wants.

“I want to fight for another world title, win it and then immediately challenge Lomachenko to a unification fight,” Russell said in a media conference call in December. “I believe if we fight again, I will win. In fact I feel if we fought 100 times, I would beat him in 99 of them.”

And now that he’s taken the first step by wresting away Gonzalez’s WBC title, it’s no surprise that Russell revisited that statement again on Saturday.

"We're definitely trying to get Lomachenko once again," he said.